There are whales who hunt schools of herring by creating a wall of bubbles which the smaller fish won’t breach. It drives the herring into tighter and tighter circles and forces them to the surface. The whales then rise from below and scoop them up in their massive mouths.
That’s a little like how a social paradigm works. Those who create or enforce a social paradigm erect a screen of bubbles around us, composed of injunctions (“shoulds”) and control us by ridicule if we question them and an ascending ladder of sanctions, each harder to bear than the one before.
At last we don’t stray beyond the wall of bubbles and behave in ways that those who work the paradigm want us to. Our lives become shaped by these confining walls constructed by our own minds.
One example happened to me some years ago. After the vision I had in 1987, in which I was shown the purpose of life (enlightenment), (1) I went to numerous university departments to see if I could do my doctoral dissertation on enlightenment. No one was willing to sponsor it.
At one point, I went to the Religious Studies Department and asked them if I could do it there. They replied that a subject like enlightenment was outside the purview of the University’s Charter.
So the purpose of life was outside the university’s purview. The reward for all action (enlightenment) was too. God meeting God as well. In what way was it a religious-studies department? And what more valuable subjects could the university keep us from?
The paradigm of empirical materialism (that only what we could touch, hear, smell, etc., is real) invited us to ridicule life after “death” and communication with the “dead.” It required us to laugh at the notion of angels or risk ridicule. It caused us to deny that a human being had an immortal soul. And, at the time, it was the paradigm that informed – or rather enclosed – the university.
When we break free from a social paradigm, we leave the community of agreement. We’re vulnerable to being ostracized. We’ve left the protection that society offers to those who conform. It can be lonely and stressful.
At this time, we’re leaving many confining paradigms – by common consent. Social darwinism (that only the fittest survive), Christ as our only possible road to salvation, what a woman’s place is, our repugnance for social welfare programs as being somehow “socialist,” a debt-based society, rugged individualism – all these paradigms are falling around us.
And, yes, we breathe easier. And yes, we’re finding support for this process from sources we seldom used to consider – like the Company of Heaven.
But it can also usher in a time of uncertainty, confusion, and anxiety.
When that arises, what might we do?
In a time of rampant paradigm change, I believe we need to turn our attention from external sources to internal sources. Everyone urges that – Archangel Michael, Jesus, Matthew Ward, every terrestrial sage I can think of.
The inner sources I’m referring to are the Higher Self or soul, the Company of Heaven, our guides, and even the Queen of Heaven, the Divine Mother. They all use the same telephone line that runs through our hridayam or spiritual heart to our inner listening apparatus.
The way matters seem to have been arranged in an orderly cosmos is that this inner channel of communication is exactly where the answers to our questions are to be found.
It can take two forms: (1) a simple aid in making our everyday decisions in the absence of confining paradigms and (2) a much deeper fount of wisdom that assists us to resolve the mysteries of life and leads us home. Let’s look at both.
To help us with our decisions, some people may hear voices. Others may see angels showing them pictures. Still others may feel a “yes” or a “no” to a question they have. That’s the channel I use.
For instance, I was about to make a purchase online today and consulted the inner voice. It surprised me by saying “no.” I was about to post an article yesterday and the inner voice said “no” until I reworked the article and then it said “yes.”
It actually didn’t say “yes” or “no.” I felt an exhilaration (yes) or a glumness (no).
The second and deeper form of inner guidance, the fount of wisdom, has the scope and ability to lead us home.
Reliance on this deeper guidance will help us remain more generally stable and balanced while the false grids, archaic belief systems, and inadequate paradigms fall.
It has so many names – the inner voice, the voice of conscience, the inner guide, the still, small voice, the Guru within. Ultimately it emanates from God. Passed down from God, it passes to us through archangels, ascended masters, and guides.
When I studied life on the astral planes in New Maps of Heaven, (2) I saw all spirits relying on communication from the higher dimensions to guide their actions and reveal the mysteries to them. There, inner guidance was a fact of life and well-accepted. It’s only here that we look at it askance.
The way to access the inner voice is to listen within. And “listening” doesn’t simply imply listening. It means opening ourselves to whatever inner sense or conduit that brings us wise guidance.
The more we listen to it, the easier it becomes to hear it and feel it. I call it a lifeline. I’m sure it brings an expansion in humanness.
Footnotes
(1) “Ch. 13 Epilog in The Purpose of Life is Enlightenment at https://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/16244-2/the-purpose-of-life-is-enlightenment/ch-13-epilogue/.
(2) New Maps of Heaven at https://goldengaiadb.com/New_Maps_of_Heaven.